


Variations on a Theme

by AnguaLupin



Category: X-Force (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Dialogue-Only, Families of Choice, Gen, X-Force defines dysfunction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-22
Updated: 2012-07-22
Packaged: 2017-11-10 11:52:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/465963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnguaLupin/pseuds/AnguaLupin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>X-Force. The morality of raising children as soldiers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Variations on a Theme

**Conversation. Sean and Scott.**  
“I won’t take on children, Scott. Not again.”  
“Why not?”  
“Because ye can raise young mutants one of two ways. Ye can raise them like we raised Gen X, like they are normal teenagers with special powers. Or ye can raise them like Cable and Domino raised X-Force – ye can tell them they are soldiers, they will always be soldiers, and fighting is the only way they can survive. And we’ve seen where each road leads us. Gen X were some kind of normal. And most of them are dead. X-Force has survived. X-Force will always survive. And no one on X-Force has a soul. I’ll have nae part of either. I’ll nae raise children only to watch them die. And even if I was capable of raising children to be soldiers, which I’m nae, I’ll nae do that either. I know what that does tae children. I’ve watched my own daughter grow more intae a killer every day. I’ll nae be responsible for that.”  
“Things are worse if you don’t train them at all.”  
“Worse? I’ll nae claim the life of your average mutant is easy. But the farther away they stay from superheroing, the better chance they’ll have of surviving.”  
“They won’t ever be normal.”  
“They’ll be alive.”  
“Is that enough?”  
“What do ye want from me, Scott? An army? Ye have that on yuir own. I’ve seen what ye have at the mansion. Ye’ll have yuir war, as long as ye recruit faster than ye fill up the graveyard.”  
“That isn’t what this is about.”  
“It isn’t? Then why train the children? Why send them out to fight?”  
“We’re teaching them how to protect themselves.”  
“Yui’re teaching them how tae take orders. How tae be loyal. Yui’re teaching them how tae be good little soldiers. But yui’re also telling them they’re not soldiers, so what do ye get? Children that walk intae cannon fire for ye, but don’t come out the other side. At least Cable never hid what he was making the kids intae.”  
“We’re not like Cable.”  
“No, yui’re not. His team lived.”  
“What do you want from me, Sean?”  
“I want ye tae tell those kids the truth.”  
“We do tell them the truth.”  
“Ye haven’t told them the price.”  
“There is no price.”  
“A graveyard out back says differently.”  
“They know what fighting is.”  
“No, they don’t. They’re children. Children never know what fighting is, until they have tae stare death in the face.”  
“They don’t need to deal with that.”  
“That’s why they die, Scott.”  
“What do you want from me, Sean?”  
“I want ye tae stop killing children.”  
“It’s the world that’s killing them.”  
“Don’t give me that bullshit. Most mutants live just as long as baselines, if they’re nae involved with us.”  
“Are you telling me the fight isn’t worth it?”  
“It’s not worth the death of people who don’t know what they’re getting intae. Children.”  
“They’d know if you trained them.”  
“I’ve given this dream enough, Scott. My daughter, my stepdaughter. Myself. I’ve watched my team die for it. I’ll nae give ye more.”  
“What will you do, then?”  
“Try tae make a home for X-Force tae come back tae. Try tae give them a reason tae remember they’re human.”  
“Will it be enough?”  
“No. But I might be able tae sleep at night.”

 

**Variations on a theme. Jimmy.**  
One day, Jimmy looked for the fire of anger in his breast and couldn’t find it. He wondered why he stayed.

There were screams and laughter from the rec room as a minor war was fought over the remote. Then he knew.

 

**Variations on a theme. Sean and Terry.**  
“I’m sorry, Da.”  
“Don’t be. Emma and I made our choice. We wanted Gen X to be normal.”  
“Ye wanted them not tae be us.”  
“Yes. We wanted them not tae be ye.”  
“Do ye regret that?”  
“I regret that I couldn’t train them tae survive. I regret that I couldn’t protect them. I regret that I failed them. But they were human, for a little while. I don’t regret that.”  
“We have never been human.”  
“Yui’re alive.”  
“Is that enough?”  
“It’s a good start.”

 

**Variations on a theme. Cable and Domino.**  
“What do you see when you look at them?”  
“Hope.”

 

**Variations on a theme. Sam.**  
Sam had long ago decided that security was knowing where every single member of his team was.

 

**Variations on a theme. Cable and Scott.**  
“What have you given them?”  
“A future.”  
“You’ve given them death.”  
“I’ve given them the knowledge of death.”  
“Is there a difference?”  
“They can’t know what it is to live unless they know what it is to die.”

 

**Variations on a theme. Cable and Domino.**  
“Do you think we did the right thing?”  
“Do _you_ think you did the right thing, you mean. I just aided and abetted.”  
“Do you think I did the right thing?”  
“They’re alive, aren’t they?”  
“They could have survived without us.”  
“As damaged as they were? Not a chance.”  
“We’ve made monsters out of them.”  
“We’ve made people out of them.”  
“They’ll never be normal.”  
“They never would have been.”  
“I don’t like it.”  
“You don’t have to.”

 

**Variations on a theme. Sean and Moira.**  
“Do ye help them because of Terry, or because of Gen X?”  
“When I look at her I see Domino.”  
“Do ye think ye can change that?”  
“I can try.”  
“What will that make her, then?”  
“Human.”  
“What will happen to her when she stops killing?”  
“…I don’t know.”

 

**Variations on a theme. Shatterstar.**  
Shatterstar knew nothing of the politics of this earth. He cared nothing. What he did know was three-fold: the weight of swords in his hands, the unbearable need to protect Julio, and that he had somehow, in the faces of the team around him, found a new fight. And in that, a new reason for being.

 

**Variations on a theme. Scott and Emma.**  
“Is it enough?”  
“It’s never enough.”  
“It wasn’t your fault.”  
“They’ll just die again.”  
“No, they won’t.”

 

**Variations on a theme. Terry.**  
Sometimes, Terry saw the Shadow King in whispers.

Sometimes, Terry had no regrets.

 

**Variations on a theme. Sam and Tabitha.**  
“Do you think this is worth it?”  
“Do Ah think what is worth what?”  
“ _This._ Is worth not being normal.”  
“Ah don’t think that’s something we’re given a choice about.”  
“Don’t you think about it?”  
“Why? You do what you can with what you’ve been given.”  
“Sometimes I wonder if we’d be happier.”  
“We wouldn’t be us.”

 

**Variations on a theme. Cable and Scott.**  
“Is it a crime to raise children in the habit of hope?”  
“It is when there’s no difference between hope and lies.”  
“You’ve made monsters out of them.”  
“Yes.”

 

**Variations on a theme. Sean and Jimmy.**  
“I can’t protect her.”  
“Neither can I.”

 

**Variations on a theme. Rictor.**  
Julio had stopped looking for redemption. What he regretted – every second of every day – was something that he could at least live with, if not make peace with. This was why he was surprised when he woke up one morning and realized he didn’t hate himself any more.

 

**Variations on a theme. Sean and Emma.**  
“We made our choice.”  
“We made the _wrong_ choice.”  
“No. We gave them a childhood.”  
“They’re dead.”  
“Not all of them.”  
“Most of them.”  
“They lived.”  
“X-Force still lives.”  
“No. X-Force survives.”

 

**Variations on a theme. Sean and Cable.**  
“I can’t apologize.”  
“I can’t blame ye.”  
“You have every right to.”

 

**Variations on a theme. Tabitha.**  
Tabitha thinks of “normal” as some vaguely pink colored life that involves a small house and a mother packing lunches for the children before she drives them to school. Tab isn’t sure whether she thinks of “normal” like this because it is so different from the way her life was before she was a mutant, or because it is so different from the way her life is now.

 

**Variations on a theme. Sean and Scott.**  
“There will always be children needing our help.”  
“There will always be people willing tae die.”  
“We give them a home.”  
“Ye give them a cause. That is not the same thing.”  
“We’re making a future.”  
“Yes. Do ye like it?”


End file.
